GOP Winning War on Women

A Hill poll published today confirms what we thought, impressionistically: the Democrats’ “war on women” theme, and the accompanying attacks on Ann Romney, have backfired:

More voters think Mitt Romney and the Republican Party respect women who work outside the home than think President Obama and the Democrats respect women who stay at home, according to the latest The Hill Poll.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters said the presumptive GOP presidential nominee respects women who have independent careers, while 27 percent said he doesn’t and 24 percent weren’t sure.

When asked if President Obama respects women who stay at home rather than pursue a career, 37 percent of likely voters said he doesn’t and 35 percent said he does. Twenty-nine percent were unsure.

Which suggests that voters saw Hilary Rosen as a surrogate for the Obama administration. Overall, women prefer Romney to Obama, at least in this survey:

When it came to just women voters, 46 percent said Romney better understands their issues while 41 percent said Obama is better.

Talk about the “gender gap” tends to be misleading, as what really exists is a marriage gap. It is not women in general who are drawn to the Democratic Party, but single women. The Hill survey, like all other poll data I’ve seen, reflects this reality:

While The Hill Poll results didn’t reveal a pronounced gender bias on any of the questions, there was a stark difference in the answers between single voters and married voters.

Single voters were far more likely than married ones to say that Obama is better on women’s issues: 54 percent of singles held that view against 35 percent of married voters. Conversely, Romney was chosen by 47 percent of married voters and 26 percent of singles.

Single women tend to vote for Democrats because they think they may need to fall back on the government for security. Once they marry, their primary concern is their family’s economic well-being, which more often than not leads them to vote Republican.